New Board – Terrific Competencies

The ten-year-old Amcham Finland community can once more boast a new exciting cadre of leaders.

Nine individuals representing nine member companies will take charge of Amcham’s strategic stewardship and give their expertise to the benefit of the community for the next two years.

We are very proud to present to you the new board of directors:

Ms. Senait Asgede, Senior Client Director at Schroders

Mr. Peter Bardenfleth-Hansen, Nordic Director of Tesla Motors

Ms. Carmen Ene, C.E.O. of 3StepIT

Mr. Tuomo Haukkovaara, General Manager of IBM Finland

Mr. Jan Ollila, Senior Partner at Dittmar & Indrenius

Mr. Jyrki Ovaska, Executive Vice President of UPM

Mr. Oliver Rittgen, C.E.O. of Bayer Nordic

Mr. Andreas Rosenlew, Managing Partner of Grow

Mr. Mikko-Jussi Suonenlahti, Venture Partner at Draper Esprit

What a great group. No wonder the annual general meeting confirmed them unanimously. Under their leadership, Amcham Finland is well positioned to continue to provide the membership with highly relevant business programming and connections.

Six of the board members were already on the board from 2014–15. We are fortunate enough to have them continue. Several major strategic initiatives – including our office and operations in New York City and the New North Forum – will require perspective and continuity.

On the other hand, the Amcham community is thrilled (and I’m speaking for everyone at the AGM) to bring on three new leaders, Senait, Peter and Carmen, who all bring quite a unique combination of skills and insights to the table.

Peter Bardenfleth-Hansen covers Finland out of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he is based. As an executive at Tesla, Peter has a tremendous vantage point into disruptive technology and innovation and – as any true Ambition Champion – a vision for global presence.

Developing Schroders’ business in the Nordic countries from Stockholm, Senait Asgede evaluates market opportunities and obstacles for a living. An excellent skill-set to have. A few years ago, the Ethiopian-born Swede was picked as as one of the rising female stars in Swedish business.

Peter and Senait both operate across the Nordics as do many of our recent new members. Many of them connect and engage with the Finnish market from a distance and make use of the Instant Insider services Amcham offers for its non-resident members. It is key to develop that further and make doing business easy.

Last but not least, Carmen Ene has a tried-and-true hunch for strategic market opportunities. During her career she has founded and grown a company, and steered an international financing business in South Africa as well as in Europe.

Romanian-born Carmen has first-hand experience in life as an expatriate. She moved to Helsinki via Vienna, London, Budapest and Milan. Now she runs a Finnish company, whose business she has already multiplied.

As we welcome the new board, we want to extend warm thanks to the outgoing directors for their distinguished contribution, passion and camaraderie: